Using this for Day 2 of the "Things That Make Me Happy" meme. I wouldn't say the episode makes me happy, but I do love me some emo!Nix.



Why We Fight

I'm guaranteeing my first class ticket to hell by putting snarky commentary on an episode about alcoholism and the Holocaust, but I'll get over it. :P This one got a little out of hand. I LOVE NIX, OKAY!? HE'S SO YUMMY AND BROKEN IN THIS EPISODE, I LOVE IT!

So Nix is in his room, getting drunk, and I'm all, "Mmm...hands..." as he's grabbing his beloved Vat 69 and pouring a glass. And then another one.




Then I spontaneously combust as he starts taking his clothes off, because it's HBO, but alas, HBO fails the fangirls here. Nix seems cranky, but we don't know why yet.






But then you see Winters down the hall as Nix crosses the room, pulling off his suspenders, and I think this series has given me a suspenders kink, word.




So Winters shows up, eating something, and is all, "Nix, you suck. You got to go jump out of a plane and I got stuck in some meeting. What's up with that?" Some sort of role reversal going on because Nix isn't talking and Winters won't shut up. I then get distracted as Nix unstraps the knife from his leg. Dick's kinda like, "Wow, must be his time of the month" so he starts to leave.






Nix takes like an hour to get his jump boots off, and they have a very innuendoey (totally a word) conversation about "firing weapons in combat" and "all the action they've seen."




Winters's spidey senses are telling him that Nixon isn't in a good mood, so he turns down the radio, because Lew doesn't seem to be noticing Peter Gabriel playing. (Anachronisms, yay! That's not really what's playing, but we can pretend.) Dick asks how the jump went, and we find out why Nix is so cranky: the plane got hit, he and 2 others got out, but everyone else blew up. As Nix says, "Boom." (See GIF below.)








Dick stays very composed considering he just learned his BF was thisclose to DYING. Winters is basically, "Well, that sucks" and Lew is like, "Oh well, wasn't me!" and he's just so self-deprecating that Beecher, fifty years in the future, is falling in love with him. (Oz references, FTW!) Nix drinks so more, the two staring at each other the whole time, and again my neck fetish rears its head. Nix polishes off the bottle and goes into the other room.







Aforementioned other room has a very sturdy table and I'm surprised I haven't seen any Winters/Nixon porn involving it. Winters paces, watches Nix drink some more, and it seems like there was another reason he was looking for Lew other than asking about the jump and table sex.






Winters asks if Nix's drinking is a problem at Regiment, and Nixon is like, "No, I don't like it there. I don't get to hang out with you as much." So Dick's like, "Well, you've been demoted back to Battalion S3." Nix reaaaaaally doesn't care.






"Hear what I said, Nix? You've been demoted."
"Yeah, demoted. Got you. 'Cause I don't know how to tell them their kids never made it out of the goddamn plane."
"You tell them what you always tell them. Their sons died as heroes."
"You really still believe that?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I do. Don't you?"







There's A LOT of staring in this scene. Anyway, based on his expression and how he looks away, no, Nix does not believe it.




Speirs and Winters are trying to figure how who's the bigger hot ass when they're leaning. Nix comes in to settle the argument, which Speirs thinks isn't fair at all because Nix is CLEARLY biased. (A lot more fun to think that's what happened than what really did, isn't it?)




So because Murphy's Law is in full effect here when it comes to Nixon in this episode, he gets some letter and finds out his wife is divorcing him. And the first time I saw this episode I was like, "WTF, since when was he MARRIED!?" Winters is kinda like, "So I'm not your mistress anymore?" But Nix is too busy being pissed off that his ex-wife is taking the dog, because it's his dog, and he throws his helmet (see GIF), and Lipton is like, "Erm...awkward!" And I really like how Dick looks at him and just looks back down.








So they're driving to Bavaria and Winters is all, "R U OK!?" And Nix is all, "I'M FINE! RAWR!" He's clearly not; Winters is not impressed. Nix keeps going, "I loved that dog! His name's Indiana!" (Excuse me, I'm now picturing Nix in a fedora with a bullwhip...mmmm...)




Nix starts singing along with all the other guys, but only for the "what a hell of a way to die" parts. Winters just seems like he doesn't want to deal with Lew's shit at the moment.





They pass a shit-load of Germans that had surrendered, and Winters makes a comment about pride, which seems kind of odd so I don't know if the real Winters said it because I think the line should've gone to someone else.




They get to Landsberg, and these two caps have no real purpose other than Nix looking kinda LULzy in the background.



Dick is all majorly, giving orders, about patrols. Lew asks if he's worried about an ambush, and Winters is not but just in case they have to stay for the night.




One of the Easy platoons found something, so they're going to check it out.



And then lots of "WTF" faces ensue.




"Oh my God. Dick?"






Prisoner explains what the camp is as Liebgott translates. I try not to laugh at the faces Speirs is pulling but fail.
"He says it's a work camp for...unerwuenschter. I'm not sure what the word means. Unwanted, disliked, maybe?"
"Criminals?"
"I don't think criminals, sir. Verbrecher? No. Doctors, musicians, tailors, clerks, farmers, intellectuals. I mean, normal people."
"Juden. Juden. Juden."
"They're Jews. Poles and Gypsies."






"I'm gonna call Sink. Find Speirs and figure out how the hell to get them some food and water."





So Colonel Sink shows up...




And he's got a surgeon with him, who tells them they have to stop feeding them, need to get them back inside so they can control their food and water intake. Because eating a lot after being starved is VERY VERY BAD.




So they have to tell Liebgott to tell the prisoners to get back inside and they can't have more food. Because of course the only known Jewish character is the only one who speaks German well enough to do this.




More staring. "Dude, this blows."




Winters is presumably writing a report, because that's all he seems to do anymore. Nix is, of course, searching for booze, although he's not picky anymore. Because he's got 99 problems and a bitch is one.





"Heard from Division. Been finding camps like this all over the place."
"Jesus."
"Seems the Russians liberated one a lot worse."
"Worse?"
"Yeah, apparently. Ten times as big. Execution chambers. Ovens. For cremating all the bodies."
"Jesus."





"The locals claim that they never even knew the camp existed. They say we're exaggerating."
"Well they're gonna have a hell of an education tomorrow."





"General Taylor declared martial law about an hour ago. Ordered every able-bodied German in town aged 14 to 80 to start burying the bodies, and they'll begin tomorrow. 10th Armored are gonna supervise cleanup."
"What about us?"
"We head out for Thalem tomorrow, 1200 hours."